National Park Service
Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, Dayton OH photo: Preparing for a flight at Fort Myer, 1908  (Wright State University Archives, Wright Brothers Collection)
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National Register of Historic Places
The nation’s official list of cultural resources that have national, state or local significance.
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Aviation Theme Study
The National Park Service is currently developing an Aviation Theme Study, listed with the National Historic Landmarks program, to identify significant aviation sites in the United States.
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photo: Hoover Block

Plan Your Visit
to the Wright Cycle Company complex
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Cultural Resources

Wright Cycle Company Complex

photo: The Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and Aviation Trail Visitor Center and Museum

The Wright Cycle Company complex consists of the Wright Cycle Company building and the Wright–Dunbar Interpretive Center (the restored Hoover Block building) and the new Aviation Trail Visitor Center and Museum.

The Wright Cycle Company building was home to the Wright brothers’ bicycle business from 1895 to 1897. Here the Wright brothers began to manufacture their own brand of bicycles which gave the brothers the mechanical experience and financial resources necessary to began their experiments into powered human flight. The Wright Cycle Company building was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1990.

The Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center is located in the Hoover Block. The Hoover Block was home to Wright & Wright, Job Printers from 1890 to 1895. The Wright brothers began their first business, printing, when Orville was still in high school and they printed small neighborhood newspapers, notecards, bill heads, and circulars. While located in this building, the Wright brothers printed a newspaper published by Paul Laurence Dunbar for the African American community of Dayton. The Hoover Block is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure in the West Third Street Historic District.

Learn more about the Wright Cycle
Company Complex

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Wright Cycle
Company Complex
Huffman Prairie
Flying Field
1905 Wright Flyer III
Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial
Aviation Heritage Links
NPS Aviation Facts
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Paul Laurence Dunbar, Orville Wright, and Wilbur Wright

Did You Know?
Wilbur and Orville Wright begin publication of their weekly magazine Snap Shots on October 20, 1894.

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